FOX 4 breaks ground on new state-of-the-art TV station in Las Colinas

IRVING, Texas - It’s a big day for FOX 4 News.

The station officially broke ground on a new state-of-the-art television station in Irving's Las Colina community.

The new building on Royal Lane will be a two-story, 60,000-square-foot facility with a modern studio, a redesigned newsroom, and podcast suites.

But it won’t look like your typical old-school TV station. It will broadcast via fiber. That means no TV tower or antennas and minimal satellite dishes.

It comes after months of conversations with the city of Irving, architects, and construction managers.

"These things do not just happen overnight," said Irving Mayor Rick Stopfer. "We are immensely proud that KDFW has selected Irving as its new home."

For the past 75 years, KDFW has called Downtown Dallas its home.

But in that time, the market has changed.

It’s grown into the fourth largest in the country and the landscape looks much different than it did back then.

Senior Vice President and General Manager Jeff Gurley said the new building will help FOX 4 better serve the Dallas-Fort Worth community.

Construction is expected to take about two years.

Station History

The history of KDFW FOX 4 begins more than 80 years ago, during the "golden age" of radio. On Oct. 30, 1926, KRLD-AM radio signed on the air for the very first time. The call letters KRLD came from an acronym from the station's joint owners: Edwin J. "K"iest and the "R"adio "L"aboratories of "D"allas.

A year later, in 1927, the founders sold KRLD to the Dallas Times Herald newspaper. The same year, the station signed up to be the very first Texas affiliate on the brand-new Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) radio network.

In the 1940s, in the dawn of the "television age," KRLD's owners decided to open their own TV station. KRLD-TV Channel 4 was the fourth Texas TV station granted a license to operate by the Federal Communications Commission.

Channel 4 signed on the air Dec. 3, 1949. The very first telecast? Typical Texas: a football game -- SMU vs Notre Dame. We soon added news and local entertainment programs, and hooked our sails to the CBS television network.

MORE: KDFW Through the Years

Construction Webcam

Keep track of the progress of the future FOX 4 building as it is built by visiting our FOX 4ward webcam.